Conceptualizing Lying-Flat Attitudes: Youth Withdrawal and Political Reconfiguration in East Asia

Across advanced democracies, younger generations are increasingly characterized not only by lower electoral participation but also by broader patterns of social and political withdrawal. Beyond declining turnout, evidence points to rising fatigue, disillusionment and disengagement from work, competition and long-term life planning. In East Asia, this sentiment has crystallized in the discourse of tangping (“lying flat”), which signals a passive orientation toward social expectations and a preference for self-preservation over achievement. This paper examines lying-flat attitudes as a culturally embedded form of youth withdrawal that intersects with processes of depoliticization and contributes to broader debates on democratic citizenship and institutional distrust amid changing forms of youth political engagement. Conceptually, I distinguish between institutional lying-flat, defined by disillusionment with political institutions and low perceived efficacy, and lifestyle lying-flat, which reflects retreat from social competition and material aspirations. Although lying flat has been discussed primarily in sociology and psychology, its political implications remain underdeveloped. This project advances a political-science conceptualization of lying flat as a multidimensional mode of youth withdrawal located at the intersection of depoliticization, unpolitics, and occasional antipolitics. Empirically, this project draws on an original 2024 survey in Taiwan that includes measures of institutional and lifestyle lying-flat attitudes, political passivity, and several forms of political participation. Preliminary results show that institutional lying flat correlates with higher passivity and lower engagement, whereas lifestyle lying flat may coexist with selective or issue-based participation. Younger respondents display distinctive configurations of withdrawal, distrust and residual engagement. Building on this pilot, the project develops a cross-national survey to be implemented in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. The workshop paper will present the draft measurement model, discuss challenges of translation and conceptual equivalence, and outline strategies for analyzing generational patterns of depoliticization across East Asian democracies. Through this workshop, I seek to refine three dimensions of the project. First, I aim to clarify the political meaning of “lying flat” by grounding it in theories of depoliticization and youth withdrawal. Second, I plan to assess whether lying-flat attitudes can be meaningfully differentiated into institutional, lifestyle and reactive forms, and how these types relate to concepts such as unpolitics and antipolitics. Third, I welcome methodological feedback on the operationalization and cross-national measurement of these distinctions, including item development and tests of cultural and factorial validity. Such input will be crucial for finalizing the East Asian comparative design to be implemented after the workshop.